Anything But Weak
by DemonColours
Summary: It's a normal day when it happens, and when it comes no one can avoid it enough. Today ended in chaos, but it taught the greatest lesson of them all. "So instead of running, I begin to walk."


It's a bright day today.

I'm humming happily as I pack up my last bag. As usual, I just shove everything that fits inside, almost _too_ excited to be going back. I'd moved out two years ago for school here in New York, you see. I'd learned so much during my stay. I've made all sorts of new friends and tried all sorts of weird foods, and the bustling city was a big change from my small town. The constant chatter of so many people was surprisingly comforting.

But as great as it's been, I haven't seen my family in so long. So I'm finally headed home.

I'm half consciously whistling a tune as I practically skip down the stairs of the apartment and out into the open air. The sun is shining brilliantly against the baby blue sky. Not a cloud in sight. Perfect weather.

I'm considering whether or not to call my roommate to ask if they could drive me to the airport when a small voice speaks.

'Mommy, what's that?'

I hear the innocent confusion in her voice and turn to find the small child pointing up at the sky. The mother hushes her, but follows her child's gaze. I look up at the sky as well, slightly curious.

But what I see almost makes me drop my phone.

There's a huge gap in the once-clear sky - no, more like some kind of _vortex_ - and it's spewing forth swarms and swarms of...of...flying metallic creatures. The vortex is a gaping hole of a swirling, purple mass, as if it opened to the galaxies above. Beneath the gap is a sort of laser that must have opened the portal, and it is the strangest thing I've ever seen.

I don't know whether to run or whether to watch - _is this some kind of twisted show?_ - but suddenly someone is screaming.

I whirl around and soon all I see is panic; people are running and a man is yelling. I stumble as my bags are ripped from my arms when someone tears past me, trying to run, trying to get away.

But trying to get away from what?

I watch with wide eyes as the roads before me begin to crack and tear up, the concrete shattering into huge chunks of earth and rock as a swarm of creatures fly overhead. Bright lights blast from them and I don't know what it is, but suddenly I don't care. Panic is all that seizes me in that moment and I lurch into a run. I turn and I dash away desperately, kicking and screaming and trying to save myself.

_Out out out I need out_. That is all I am thinking.

The chaos is around me and I am losing myself in the blind screaming of everyone. I don't know if I am screaming along with them or not. People are pushing, always pushing, and never ceasing their cries of pain, fear, and strife. The world is suffocating and I can't stop it, I'm not in control of myself, I can't see _anything_. I cough and I choke on the dust of the collapsing buildings, I trip over those who have fallen and those who are tripping, too. And I know that if I stop I will be trampled like anyone else.

But I want to stop. I want to turn around.

The crowd is dragging me, ripping at me from all sides. The ground explodes again and I lose my balance for a moment. The world trembles for a moment. Several people are felled and I'm deafened by the sudden ringing in my ears.

_I'm not hearing I'm not seeing I'm not moving away_

I am crushed from the pushing and breathless from the running. My vision sways this way and that and I suddenly can't find it within myself to care. All that has me is the instinct to survive; the instinct to get out alive.

The world shakes again and more people vanish from the chaos, a huge explosion of rocks and dirt flying far above our heads. Someone falls and I can't catch them. They're too far away and suddenly they're gone because I haven't stopped running, and I can't escape.

_Is this it, then?_

Everything slows all at once; the chaos suddenly draining into a single, detailed moment. The world lets go of me. I'm turning my head when I watch a woman vanish in a cloud of ashes as a building is destroyed behind her. I'm turn away when I see a man scream but I can't hear his voice. He holds a body in his arms...he is mourning over someone...his wife...

I feel the crowd dissolve around me but they are still running. They are still screaming and they are still crying. They are a blur, and for a moment it seems like I'm the only one who is no longer moving. Maybe I am.

But there are so many others who will never move again.

My eyes find the sky again, the baby blue I'd first seen. Blurs are there, too, flying high above the crowds. I'm seeing them, I'm seeing these details, but why? For what reason? Won't I end up like them eventually? Isn't this where it all ends?

And suddenly I'm thinking of my family. I'm thinking of Richard, my annoying older brother, and I'm thinking of Celina, my amazing younger sister. I'm suddenly thinking about Mom and Dad and Uncle Jason and Aunt Helen, of my cousins Rebecca and David and Alex...

And then I'm suddenly thinking that there's not enough time.

This is not where its ends, I'm thinking, because I'm not done yet. None of us are. Not my family. Not my roommate. Not that little girl or her mother. Not that man and his wife. It can't end here.

So instead of running, I begin to walk.

_We always have a say in what we do_

The world begins to focus, and everything is coming back to me.

_Our lives are never perfect and we might never be what other expect us to be_

My hearing is starting to return, and so is my sight. But now I realize that I'd never lost them in the first place.

_But we will always find a way to succeed_

I'm feeling it. The suffocation, that is. It's coming back, too.

_And in the end, we will finally realize that we are anything but weak._

Then I know for certain that it's not over.


End file.
